Adaptivity and mobility aspects of wireless communications are becoming more important in people's lives. People are relying more and more on mobile wireless devices to perform an ever-increasing suite of functions such as, for example, navigation, e-mail, web surfing, streaming video, etc. However, there is a rigidity aspect that is associated with wireless mobile devices in that a wireless mobile device is typically configured to be capable of performing a predetermined number of functions independent of its location, Time-of-Day (ToD), velocity, acceleration, temperature, sensing of a signal, etc. It would, for example, be desirable to have a mobile wireless device act as a “wallet” (over and above other functions) only when it is time to pay for an item and not act as a wallet when there is no need to do so.
The present invention, addresses these limitations (i.e., the rigidity) of current wireless mobile devices. Accordingly, embodiments of the present invention provide systems, devices and/or methods that may be used to enable adaptively one or more modes/functions of a device based upon having satisfied by the device (or another device) a proximity condition/criterion.
As used herein, the term “end-user device,” “wireless mobile device,” “mobile wireless device” or simply “device” includes any electronic device that may be used to transmit/receive information wirelessly and/or non-wirelessly such as, for example, a Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) modem/transceiver; a cable modem/transceiver; a cellular and/or satellite radiotelephone with or without a multi-line display; Personal Communications System (PCS) terminals that may combine a radiotelephone with data processing, facsimile and/or data communications capabilities; Personal Digital Assistants (PDA) that can include a radio frequency transceiver and/or a pager, Internet/Intranet access, Web browser, organizer, calendar and/or a global positioning system (GPS) receiver; laptop and/or palmtop computers or other appliances, which may (or may not) include a radio frequency transceiver.
An end-user device also may be referred to herein as a radiotelephone, radioterminal, mobile terminal, user device, wireless device, device and/or terminal; etc. As used herein, the term end-user device and/or any of its synonyms also include(s) any other radiating device/equipment/source that may have time-varying or fixed geographic coordinates and/or may be portable, transportable, installed in a vehicle (aeronautical, maritime, or land-based) and/or situated and/or configured to operate locally and/or in a distributed fashion over one or more terrestrial and/or extra-terrestrial location(s).